The Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress

Termed the 'national temple of the arts' on its opening in 1897, the Library of Congress's Thomas Jefferson Building remains, with the exception of technological improvements, essentially unchanged. Designed to house America's national library and to showcase the art and culture of the growing Republic, its grand-scale architecture was inspired by European national libraries, but its decoration was American-made. This skillfully designed book explores the world's largest library and its role as a space for the arts.

The Thomas Jefferson Building is part of Scala Publisher's Art Spaces, an innovative series of landscape-shaped volumes celebrating the architecture--both contemporary and classical--of buildings containing the art and design of Europe and the New World.